“Mike Nickeas will return to the Mets on a minor-league deal with an invite to big-league camp,” according to the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff.

9:12 am:Nickeas and OF Fred Lewis both elected to become a free agents after being removed from the 40-man roster last week, according to ESPN New York.

Matthew Cerrone, Lead Writer

Nickeas is a back-up catcher, at best. Frankly, watching him last Spring and seeing how his teammates and coaches relied on him for insight and feedback, I bet he could be a really good coach one day. For now, though, I’m sure he’ll welcome testing out the open market. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him re-sign with the Mets to go to Triple-A. But, it’s pretty clear from reports that the Mets would first prefer to find a more powerful, veteran catcher to team up on the big-league roster with Josh Thole (who will have a job on this team so long as R.A. Dickey is wearing blue and orange).